Democratic National Committee:Press
When rejecting John Hagee's endorsement yesterday, John McCain said he found certain remarks made by Hagee "deeply offensive and indefensible" and that he did not know of them before actively pursuing Reverend Hagee's endorsement. Yet the comments that finally spurred McCain's rejection of Hagee, where Hagee "suggested that Hitler as a hunter, and as a result of the Holocaust, Jews had been brought back to the land God gave unto their fathers," were readily available on the Internet. And once the controversy over Hagee's endorsement heated up this year, The Jewish Week, a well-read Jewish publication, reported months ago that Hagee had made statements "that seem to blame the Jews for their own persecution over the centuries." [New York Times, 5/23/08; ABC News Blog, 5/22/08; The Jewish Week, 3/12/08]
John McCain's disregard for Hagee's controversial and offensive comments even when actively seeking his endorsement shows that McCain is willing do or say anything to win, no matter who it offends.
McCain Rejects Hagee Endorsement, Claiming He Had No Idea About Hagee's Comments… "'Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible. I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee's endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well.'" [New York Times, 5/23/08]
…But These Comments Had Been Reported As Early As November of 2006 on Huffington Post. In November of 2006, about 6 months after the book was published, Huffington Post blogger Michelle Goldberg wrote about Hagee's statement in Jerusalem Countdown that the Holocaust resulted from Jews' refusal to move to Israel when bidden by Theodor Herzl: "God then sent the hunters. The hunter is one who pursues his target with force and fear. No one could see the horror of the Holocaust coming, but the force and fear of Hitler's Nazis drove the Jewish people back to the only home God ever intended for the Jews to have -- Israel. I stand amazed at the accuracy of God's Word and its relevance for our time." [HuffingtonPost, 11/15/06 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-goldberg/we-might-be-chosen-but-w_b_34220.html)]
Other Websites Reported the Quote As Well. Several other popular websites reported the quotes as well. The Daily Kos had a March 2007 article on the topic. So did Talk2Action.org and Alternet [Daily Kos, 3/5/07 (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/5/1170/24629); http://www.talk2action.org/story/2007/3/5/105015/2167; http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/48821/]
After casting himself as a "Maverick" in 2000, the new John McCain is walking in lockstep with President Bush, pandering to the right wing of the Republican Party, and embracing the ideology he once denounced. On the campaign trail McCain has callously abandoned many of his previously held positions, even contradicted himself, in a blatant attempt to remake himself into a candidate Republicans can accept in 2008. So just who is the real John McCain? The Democratic National Committee will present a daily fact aimed at exposing the man behind the myth.
